Cryptocurrencies have been all over the news for the last few years. Most recently, the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, jumped to an all-time high, topping $71,000, according to coindesk.com.
“People will often confuse cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin,” said Matt Frazier, a longtime financial consultant and member of a local group that wants to bring Bitcoin to Cody. While Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, it “stands alone as being the premier monetary asset.”
Frazier is knowledgable about Bitcoin and its history and wants to share that information. And although Teresa Bacal, a member of We Speak in Bitcoin, is up-to-date on the market and gets involved with Bitcoin events around the world, she doesn’t like to get bogged down in the specifics.
“It’s like asking how your Visa card works,” said Bacal. “Most don’t care, they just want to use it.”
While she said that a goal is to get local businesses involved, right now she and Frazier are focused on monthly events for those interested in getting involved in Bitcoin.
“Our goal is to share what Bitcoin is with as many people as possible — to give people a place to go to ask questions and give them a resource,” said Bacal.
Their next meeting is at 5:30 p.m. March 20 at the Cody Craft Brewing Company.
While their meetings won’t cover everything from the ground up, they’ll give those interested an “initial nudge” and help them along, said Frazier.
Frazier addressed questions such as what, exactly, is the point of a digital currency like Bitcoin, and whether it’s safe to invest your money in it.
While the term “volatility” is thrown around a lot in the news, there are some inaccurate claims out there about the digital currency, said Frazier.
A common reason that Frazier hears from people who dislike Bitcoin is that it is used for money laundering by terrorists and other criminals.
“The reality is that the thing most used for money laundering and terrorism is the US dollar,” he said.
To put it as simply as possible, Bitcoin is a digital version of the gold standard — a monetary value based on a limited supply.
While there are some cryptocurrencies designed to be untraceable, to help explain how Bitcoin won’t help fund terrorism, it’s necessary to go into what Bitcoin is and the process of generating a Bitcoin, otherwise known as mining.
Bitcoin was created in 2009 in response to the financial crises of 2008, by an unknown developer who goes by the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, said Frazier.
To put it as simply as possible, Bitcoin is a digital version of the gold standard — a monetary value based on a limited supply. There is a hard limit of 21 million Bitcoin that can be made available in the world in order to remove the possibility of inflation.
Bitcoin is “mined” through the computation of a math problem that develops a specific string of letters and numbers, known as a hash.
That math problem is designed to be solved within 10 minutes and, if you’re the one who solves the math problem and develops the hash, you get the Bitcoin, said Frazier. Then the clock begins again.
Once you have the hash, you add it to the block chain, which is basically a tally of each Bitcoin — from who mined it to who currently owns it.
“[Bitcoin] is a stupid thing for criminals to use because it’s the ultimate traceable asset,” he said.
As for keeping your Bitcoin secure, it’s dependant on your own memory.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are held in a program called a wallet, said Frazier. That wallet is an application that stores your Bitcoin balance separate from any bank or financial institution.
“Much like Venmo, you can send money, receive money and it shows you your balance,” said Frazier.
You access your specific wallet through 12 seed words that you could write down or commit to memory, thereby keeping your assets safe.
As for sending money, that’s a different story.
“Any transaction is irrevocable,” said Frazier. “So make sure you know where you’re sending it.”
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here